Primordial Provisions Podcast: Recent Episodes
Ali Elashram
We're all wayfaring through this world. Host Ali Elashram dispenses oral provisions for the journey and discusses what he sees as common roadblocks holding people back from meeting the needs implanted within them from the start, so that listeners can be more empowered to live well and uncover who they really are and what they're really made of. You'll learn about human needs and their fulfillment, curtailing wants, respecting and drawing from tradition, resisting monoculture, outward sobriety and inward ecstasy, productively navigating diversity and pluralism, and advice to avoid getting overwhelmed. Hit subscribe, and get ready to tap into your primordial side.
020 - Is it possible to have humility, healing and stability while still attaining money, respect and power?
019 - Beauty is often associated with indulgence, and the virtues of frugality and efficiency are often associated with ugliness. If we reflect further, however, beauty, frugality and efficiency look like complimentary qualities with indulgence as an afterthought.
018 - A replicable framework for effectively taking advantage of the opportunity of agency in our lives and being as strong as we can be could be defined as follows: acknowledge our powerlessness > have gratitude for our agency > make use of it right now > realize we aren't the x-factor in whatever success ensues > go back to the beginning.
017 - Is angst a forgone conclusion for many living in the served world? How can angst be dealt with and motivation become more systematically experienced?
015 - How can we tune out the noise and know where to begin dismantling white supremacy? Like unraveling the knots of many issues, taking a look at beginnings and isolating variables is always a good place to start.
014 - Do we wait around for "big" moments in our lives to give us feeling? Do we use them as drugs and an escape from our meaningless and unfulfilling lives? We do we sustainably and healthily feel in all our moments, big and small? Are some moments big and others small? Or are they all equally moments?
013 - The start of anything meaningful is bitter. The ability to extract benefit starts with bitterness. Feeling and its subsequent benefits aren't been possible without bitterness, and there's an interesting, scientific metaphor that supports the idea.
012 - A life well-lived is marked by meaning and fulfillment - prerequisites that come with a prerequisite of their own: feeling. Without it one can't experience meaning, fulfillment or a robust life. The problem is we can't pick and choose what we feel; we either accept feeling, and all its pain, or we reject it altogether - throwing the sweet out to avoid the bitter.
011 - We know bailouts serve the rich and corporate. Why does it seem we're more perturbed by assistance being extended to those more comparable to us humanly and socio-economically, though?
010 Does objective truth exist? Is it possible to prove it? Can its absence be proven? In the tenth episode of Primordial Provisions, we briefly dive in.
009 Are we using the time we have to make deposits or withdrawals from our life account? Deposits require acknowledgement and addressing of issues; withdrawals come when we deny and suppress those issues.
008 - We find ourselves in a time where the ability to imagine our futures is more difficult than ever. This can leave us feeling anxious and unable to make decisions. Is anything certain? Is anything uncertain? How can the discussion of those questions leave us empowered and able to move forward effectively?
007 - Are we making decisions based on intentions of gaining prestige? What is prestige? Is it something we should intend on?
006 - Respect is the end-goal of the money, power, respect process. This is truly a trivial pursuit that leads to the acquisition of wants at the expense of needs and long-term instability.
005 - Understanding the acquisition of money, or provision, and how, like control and power, it is out of our hands is an essential foundation of a humble, stable life. Getting it wrong can take us way off course.
004 - Power for most of us is more of a contemplation on our powerlessness. It can be quite a disempowering and depressing topic if not pondered in a manner that keeps our agency intact and in the forefront of our thoughts and subsequent actions.
003 - Psychological projections and the veracity of arguments for meaning, or lack thereof, in life are explored and connected.